Peter Howard

Primrose Hill

From Dulwich Poetry Competition Anthology, 1996.

The name's too good to be true.
For a start, Superballs were banned...

The supersonic boom was exciting
at first, but broke no windows, so
the boys went back to playing Zulu
and the girls showed their knickers
doing handstands on the other side of the wall...

Cochineal was made from crushed
beetles, as everyone knew,
but we still went around with red mouths.
They were probably right about the Superballs:
mine broke a blue and silver vase in Flat 5,
7 Prince Albert Road. GULliver 2770.